Lecture Overview

  1. What are the issues?

  2. Why is cooperation so difficult?

  3. The environment and security issues

Key Questions

  1. What is the current state of the international environmental and climate change regimes?

  2. Why is it difficult for states and people to cooperate on climate change? What are the sources of conflict?

  3. What are some of the key frameworks or mental models we can use to help us understand the politics of environmental issues?

  4. How can institutions change the incentives of actors re pollution?

The Issues?

Pollution

  • Air, water, land, etc.

  • Sometimes related to global warming, but not always

To right: A man in Beijing wears covers her face to filter air pollution.

Snapshot of global air quality station readings, April 20, 2022.

Photo of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Photo of a sperm whale that died with 220 pounds of debris in its stomach. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/world/europe/harris-beached-whale.html

The Issues?

Acid rain

  • Industrial emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides blend with moisture in the air

  • Increases the acidity of rain, snow, fog, and clouds

  • Kills fish, insects, amphibians, bacteria, and vegetation

To right: Photo of forested area affected by acid rain

The Issues?

Overconsumption

  • Over-consumption of renewable natural resources

  • Consumption exceeds rate of renewal

  • Includes fish, terrestrial game, and animals killed for trophies or traditional medicinal remedies (elephants, rhinos), but also includes plant life.

To right: Atlantic Cod

The Issues?

Depleted uranium munitions

  • Higher density than lead

  • Used for armor piercing rounds

  • Concerns about health and environmental effects

To right: A-10 Warthog firing machine guns

The Issues?

Military Bases

  • Lots of munitions and chemicals

  • One massive industrial accident

  • Chemicals from daily operations often contaminate soil or water supplies

  • Old munitions may remain unexploded, harming people years later

To right: US Naval base at Pearl Harbor where fuel stored at Red Hill storage facility supplies have contaminated Hawaii’s drinking water supplies.

Why is Cooperation Difficult?

Why is Cooperation Difficult?

Many reasons:

  • Coordinating behavior between multiple countries and billions of people is hard

  • Costs of environmental protection are not evenly distributed across individuals, industries, or countries

  • Benefits of better protections are often diffuse.

Why is Cooperation Difficult?

How do we conceptualize environmental issues? What mental models can help us?

We can use concepts we’ve seen before!

Key concepts:

  • Public goods and Private goods

  • Common pool resources (CPRs): Resources that everyone can access. Examples include fisheries, hunting on public land, etc.

  • Negative externalities

Table 13.1 from FLS
Excludable Nonexcludable
Rival Private Goods Common Pool Resources
Nonrival Club Goods Public Goods

Why is Cooperation Difficult?

Collective action problem:

  • Assume that we all prefer a cleaner environment

  • There are individual costs to pursuing this goal

  • Gains from your individual contribution are minimal

  • Why not enjoy the good, but not pay for it?

Why is Cooperation Difficult?

.medium[ Example: Hudson River in New York

  • General Electric (GE) dumped massive amounts of PCBs and TCEs into Hudson River

  • PCBs have contaminated area drinking water, soil, etc.

  • These chemicals have been linked to cancer, birth defects and developmental difficulties, liver damage, kidney damage, as well as nervous system disorders

  • State tax dollars in excess of $50 million have been spent on cleanup

To right: NY State Department of Environmental Conservation sign declaring catch and release fishing restrictions due to pollution ]

Why is Cooperation Difficult?

Example: Acid Rain

  • Source: Power plants and industry in Midwest and Great Lakes states

  • Industrial emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides blend with moisture in the air

  • Emissions carried into Adirondack Mountains in NY and Canada where acid rain became problematic

  • Increases the acidity of rain, snow, fog, and clouds

  • Kills fish, insects, amphibians, bacteria, and vegetation

Why Is Cooperation Difficult?

Environmental regulation can be costly

  • Creates winners and losers (much like trade protection!)

  • Costs of regulation tend to be highly concentrated

  • Benefits are widely dispersed (we all enjoy a cleaner environment)

  • Opponents of regulatory policies enjoy advantages in overcoming collective action problems

Scientific uncertainty (i.e. model prediction error)

  • Predictions from scientific models become increasingly uncertain over large time ranges

  • Uncertainty is exploited by different groups for political leverage

Why Is Cooperation Difficult?

International sources conflict

  • Developing countries argue that environmental regulation is biased in that they impose unfair costs on developing states

  • Western countries were able to develop without worrying about environmental issues and are responsible for the largest quantities of emissions

  • Developed countries are also better able (more capacity) to combat climate change

  • Wealthier countries responsible for greater share of global emissions

Why Is Cooperation Difficult?

There have been successes

  • Ozone

  • Acid rain

  • Whaling

Why Is Cooperation Difficult?

Private-public solutions

Example: Cap and trade

  • Sets a cap on total output / emissions of a given pollutant

  • Companies can sell “credits” to other companies for pollution that they don’t produce

  • This incentivizes cleaner technologies, as companies can profit from reduced emissions

Representatives from countries around the world gather for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris, 2015. Photo from the World Economic Forum.

Why Is Cooperation Difficult?

Conflict

  • Will climate change lead to increased armed conflict?

  • Yes? No? Maybe?

  • Direct vs indirect causal pathways?

    • Direct: Effects felt through competition over increasingly scarce resources?
    • Indirect: Climate change increases severity and variability of shocks, thereby affecting migration, economic interests, natural resources, etc.